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Gholam Kadir was drawing his sword to cut him down, when the Controller interposed; advising the Emperor to bow to compulsion, and retire peacefully to his apartments.
Foiled in this, and escaping narrowly an attempt upon his person by Gholam Kadir, he ultimately retired to the protection of the British at Benares, where he died a mortified and heartbroken man on the 31st May, in the eventful year 1788.
I told them that in England, if a woman thought her husband had another wife or mistress, she would be ready to kill her and strangle the children if they were not her own. They all laughed heartily at me, and seemed to think it a great joke. I am afraid that Abd el Kadir was a bit of a Tartar in his harim, for they were very prim and pious. So much for the city of Damascus.
He accordingly explained, as best he could, his late defection, and persuaded the simple soldier to lose no time in collecting his scattered forces for an attack upon the capital. No sooner had the Beg left for this purpose, than Gholam Kadir also departed, and proceeding to Dehli renewed his hypocritical professions of loyalty through the instrumentality of Manzur Ali Khan.
Solon is an unpleasant little cantonment, but it has the advantage of being cool and healthy. It is all bare and windy, and one generally stops at a rest-house nearby for something to eat. I got out and took both dogs with me, while Kadir Buksh made tea. A soldier told, us we should find Stanley "out there," nodding his head towards a bare, bleak hill.
Thus passed the month of August, 1788, in Dehli. The courage of Gholam Kadir did not at once yield to his growing perils and difficulties. He appropriated an apartment in the palace probably the Burj-i-Tilla or "Golden Bastion." Here he caroused with his officers, while the younger members of the royal family played and danced before them like the common performers of the streets.
There were probably not less than half-a-dozen points in Shah Alam's life when a due vigour would have raised him to safety, if not to splendour; but his vigour was never ready at the right moment. There is a striking instance in Khair-ud-din's Ibratnama. Gholam Kadir asking the blind Emperor in mockery "If he saw anything?" was answered, "Nothing but the Koran between thee and me."
Idle as the speculation may now appear, it is difficult to refrain from a passing thought on the manner in which his choice of associates affected the fate not merely of his royal Father, but of Hindustan and the British power there. United with Sindhia he would in all probability have drawn off Gholam Kadir and changed the whole fortunes of the country. Dis aliter visum.
At length, on the 7th of September, finding the Mahrattas increasing in numbers and boldness, and fearing to be surrounded and cut off, Gholam Kadir moved his army back to its old encampment across the river, and despatched part of his plunder to Ghausgarh, conciliating his followers by the surrender of what was less portable, such as the rich tents and equipage which had been lately used by the Emperor on his expedition to Rewari.
At length arrived the memorable 10th of August, which, perhaps, as far as any one date deserves the distinction, was the last day of the legal existence of the famous Empire of the Moghuls. Followed by the Deputy Controller, Yakub Ali, and by four or five of his own most reckless Pathans, Gholam Kadir entered the Diwan Khas, and ordered Shah Alam to be brought before him.
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